Don't Try and Talk Me Out of It!
by KF fan
Summary: The pressures of the hero life can be immense, especially for super powered young teens. When Mas and Menos admit that they thought of quitting, Kid Flash tells them his story of giving it all up.
1. Chapter 1

A breeze from over the cool waters of the bay came through the 13th floor window at Titans Tower raising goosebumps on skin both gray and pale as Wally finished fastening the back of Jinx's black lace bra. He pulled her shoulder blades to his chest.

"That's cold. But I'll keep you warm," he said giving her a kiss on the neck and wrapping his arms around her.

She enjoyed it a few moments before sighing and chuckling "I'll be warmer if you let me get dressed. You should try it yourself," over her shoulder. "You have to train Mas and Menos."

"Already? What time is it?"

She nodded to one side at the clock on the table beside her side of the bed. "It's almost three. How long did you think we were . . . "

"I don't know. 20 or 30 minutes."

"More like twice that," she laughed. "You really can't tell, can you?" she said as she continued getting dressed.

"Subjective temporal frames of reference are a bitch to deal with. I told you. As soon as I . . ," he moved his tongue very fast, "or vibrate, exact time gets kind of fuzzy for me. That's why I always ask you to keep track of things. You were the precise planner and team leader when you were on the other side."

"Speedsters!" she sighed. "Now, get dressed or are you going to teach Mas and Menos in the buff."

"I'm looking for my ring," he said checking under the bed.

"Try your finger."

"Ha. Ha. It would be there but a certain sorceress pulled it off with her teeth, remember? I love what you do with these fingers so much . . . I love these fingers?"

She bit at one fingernail in a sheepish gesture, muttering "Oh . . . yeah," and recalled the tinny little clank as his ring hit the floor. "And you're sure you couldn't just run around the way you are?"

He was a flesh colored blur zipping all around the room though somewhere among all that zipping around, she was sure a nasty glance "no" had been shot her way.

He dropped to the floor looking behind one of the bookcases. "I'm supposed to be teaching them how to be good speedsters. Streaking's not something I'll be advising them to do."

"Like anyone would see anything anyway."

"Aha! Here it is!" he cried reaching past a toppled paperback, A split second later he was clad in his skin tight red bottom, yellow topped suit.

"Get me, one of Dinesen's. I haven't read hers in a while. I can polish off a few stories while you guys do your thing," she said. He zipped to one end of the book case and pulled a paperback from an upper shelf. She clutched it in her hands as he lifted her up, holding her as if carrying his bride across the threshold for the first time instead of out to a training session with Mas and Menos for the twentieth time.

"Just tell me when you're there," she said, closing her eyes before he started off. It was almost dizzying to try and watch everything as he ran at super speed. It wasn't unpleasant. It didn't make her nauseous. But it was frustrating how impossible it was to see more than just a blur no matter how hard she tried. How the hell did he do it?

A couple seconds later, she felt his momentum slow.

"We're there," he said softly and put her down.

Jinx opened her eyes. The landscape before them was flat and white. Yup. He'd talked about it. The Bonneville Salt Flat of Utah. 160 square miles of flat, completely open terrain with no plants at all. A wide open track for super fast cars and teenagers, too.

She had just sat down at the park bench next to where he'd stopped, at the edge of the Flat, when twin white dust trails on the horizon announced the approach of Mas and Menos. They sprinted right up to Kid Flash. She wasn't quite sure how they never ran into him halfway through decelerating but they suddenly materialized right at his side and he hugged first one then the other about the shoulders. They immediately launched into happy roughhousing at which she rolled her eyes. She had a highbrow image to maintain, after all, though secretly she found it kind of adorable.

The twins looked quite different now than they did when she'd first met them. They were 14 now and they didn't look at all like the slightly pudgy little guys they did then. They'd had a big growth spurt and both were five foot six and slender now but with a little muscle like, well, speedsters. In fact, they looked a lot like Wally did when she first met him. Maybe it was impossible to look any other way with the metabolism of a speedster.

They'd grown up in other ways, too. The way they looked at her sometimes! Gods! Staring just where you'd imagine teenage boys would stare and then looking away whenever they saw her notice. Yes, Mas and Menos had grown up. But she didn't mind really. It was a compliment in a way. And they were 14 year olds. Besides which, they were good guys. They needed to work with someone who could help them refine their power. And it was obviously good for Wally, too. She watched him play fighting with the two of them. They dragged him to the ground and he turtled under their super speed punches, just covering up and not fighting back, laughing even more than they were. They could do things at super speed even without touching for short periods of time now. And while still faster than them, Wally was no longer 4 or 5 times as fast as the Guatemalan twins any more.

It was a cycle of life thing, decided Jinx. Give back the way you were given help too. He was not only helping Mas and Menos for the future. In a way, he was connecting even more strongly to the lessons and the kindness Flash had shown him in teaching him the ropes in the past.

Finally, they tired of the mock fighting and Kid Flash got up, brushed off the dust and led them over to Jinx.

"Hi, Senora Jinx!" waved Manuel.

"Hi Mas."

"Hi, Senora Jinx!" grinned Miguel.

"Hi Menos. So, um, you in the red and yellow, what's the plan for today?"

"Well," said Kid Flash speaking both to her and to the twins. "I think we're gonna practice vibrating our molecules as we reach the sound barrier to avoid making sonic booms, then some work on hand to hand fighting and maybe a little more practice on arm cyclones-"

"Oh, Wally!" complained Mas in his heavily accented english. "We did that stuff last time!"

"And we'll keep doing it till you get it just right, Manuel. This is serious business . . . . and . . then you me and Miguel will play tag."

The twins let out a cheer. They loved playing tag. Jinx smiled at him, the message clear. You pretend like you're so tough and you're really a complete softy. His slight shrug was a confession that it was true, but so what?

How could he not play tag? It was the perfect game for speedsters. He'd absolutely loved playing tag with Flash when he first got his speed. He'd have just done the hours of drills in vibrating his molecules, making arm cyclones and the like that Flash demanded of him. It was so great just to have an adult actually spending time with him. But to get to have fun using his speed, playing a game with his hero, Flash? That was fantastic.

"We'll . . we'll be back in an hour," Kid Flash told her.

She nodded with a roll of her eyes. He always said that these training sessions would take an hour and they always ran 20 minutes over because he and the twins would be having so much fun running all over some state playing tag.

And with that, they were off, three trails of white dust heading for the other end of the Flat. But that was okay, she had things she could practice too. The strength of her hex energy had continued to grow to the point that she hesitated to go all out any more inside Titans Tower. But now, she was miles from anyone. A thin smile curved her lips. Wally had chosen this spot for her too, hadn't he? She nodded in answer to her own question.

She put her book down on the bench and jogged over to be far enough away that it wouldn't be touched. Then she raised one arm and threw a ball of hex energy into the adjacent rock hillside. The whole ridge above her trembled as some rock slid down to the edge of the Flat. After some more of that, she projected a laser of pink energy, not from one or more fingertips but from the palm of her hand, a thick, continuous bolt of hissing energy with which she sliced right through one of the boulders that had slid down the hill. She caught her breath at the effort then sliced through another and then a third before she felt too tired to keep going. She stopped, feeling satisfied at this but wanting to try just one more thing. She waited a minute to catch her breath and feel, in that certain indescribable way, the sensation within her mind that told her her hex energies were restored. Feeling refreshed, she created another ball of hex energy, hurled it into the hillside, felt the whole ridge tremble and then some boulders tumble down the slope toward her. She joined index finger and thumb tips of both hands over her head and suddenly, there was a quarter sphere, a thick wall of translucent pink hex energy shielding her. The boulders bounced off with a series of crashes. She felt the impact, somehow, the effort in resisting that force, but the boulders and then some smaller rocks just slid down the arc of the pink surface she'd made. She felt the effort of it becoming more and more difficult and jumped back, cartwheeling to the salt flat as rocks slid and finally settled at the edge of the hillside.

She sighed contentedly and strode back to the bench. She was definitely making progress in all these skills. But that was enough of that. She picked up her paperback copy of Winter's Tales by Isak Dinesen from the bench and started reading. She loved Dinesen.

After finishing the first story in the collection, The Young Man With the Carnation, she pulled out her Titans communicator. She checked the time. Four o'clock. They should be almost done. Hmm. A smile curled her lips and she switched to GPS tracking mode. Sure enough, there on the map of Utah, Nevada and Arizona was one orange dot being followed around by two black dots. The orange dot was now in southern Utah, heading for Arizona with the other two dots in close pursuit. She smiled at the thought of how much fun they were probably having and turned the page in the book to the next story, Sorrow-Acre.

She was curled up on one corner of the park bench reading when Kid Flash, Mas and Menos came sprinting back to the edge of the salt flat. Wally smiled at the image. Pure Jinx. She's curled up reading her fine literature and 50 feet away, the hillside looks like she destroyed it. Pure Jinx.

"Wally, wasn't there a lot more of a hill there when we left?" asked Mas.

Kid Flash nodded. "But Senora Jinx has to practice using her powers, too, just like us."

The twins exchanged impressed glances and nodded. Then Wally gestured for them to sit between him and Jinx on the park bench.

"So, how's everything at Titans East, guys?" he asked when they were seated.

"Everything's good. Senorita Bee is going to offer membership to Wonder Girl," said Menos but she's not sure if Wonder Girl will end up joining."

"How's Senorita Bee doing, Miguel?" Jinx asked him. "She seemed pretty unhappy about losing that election to be overall Titans leader."

"She was unhappy for a few days but she's okay now. Same old Senorita Bee."

"How 'bout Aqualad? How's he doing, Miguel? Manuel?" asked Kid Flash. He and Jinx watched the twins glance back and forth and barely suppress grins for a few seconds before finally answering.

"He was very . . interested-," began Mas

"-very interested!" laughed Menos.

"-in Wonder Girl possibly joining the team," grinned Mas.

"Do . . you mean what I think you mean, Manuel?" asked Kid Flash

"Si," laughed Mas. "Garth, he spends a lot of time at the computer now reviewing the file pictures of Wonder Girl and Raven and . .," Mas glanced quickly at Jinx but caught himself before saying anything.

"The other day, he came into the communications center. He was going to send some kind of message to Atlantis. And Senorita Bee was bent over the chair reading the instructions on the new security codes that Robin sent out and Senor Garth just stared at her and stared at her and then went ," Menos covered over his crotch and walked quickly away from the bench before zipping back and sitting down.

Jinx laughed.

"Senor Garth is girl crazy now," laughed Menos and Mas joined in. Wally and Jinx glanced at each other with smiles.

"I hope you guys aren't making fun of Garth. He's such a good guy."

"Oh no," Menos quickly assured him. "Senor Garth is a terrific guy. He's the best and a true, how you say, gentleman? We would never do anything to hurt him. It's just funny how much he is interested in the muchachas when before he was only interested in the muchachos."

"I think you were his favorite," laughed Mas. "Is it true what Roy said, that Garth kissed you at your bachelor's party?"

"He-had too much alcohol and did something silly," Wally confessed as the twins laughed and Jinx smirked at his embarassment. She also made a mental note to inform Raven of Garth's new predilections.

"How about Roy?" asked Wally wanting to change the subject.

"He's the same as always," said Mas.

"Always out on dates?" suggested Jinx.

"No. That's not true," said Mas.

"Really?"

"Really Senora Jinx. For some reason he wants everybody to think that."

"He thinks it makes him seem cool," offered Menos. "I saw one time, he was working out in the weight room and he answered a call from Beast Boy with the video off on his communicator and he pretended to be with a boy, or maybe it was a girl, breathing hard from lifting weights and pretending it was . . . "

The twins laughed and Wally and Jinx sighed and looked at each other.

"But he's still good about helping you guys, right?" asked Jinx.

"He's almost as nice as Garth is to us," said Menos and Mas nodded his agreement.

"How 'bout you guys? How are things for you guys?" asked Wally expecting to get another pair of positive chirps. But instead, Mas and Menos glanced at each other with hesitant expressions for a few moments before either said anything.

"Okay," Mas finally offered with no particular enthusiasm.

"What's the matter guys," Wally whispered. In the pause as Mas and Menos glanced at each other, the scatter of salt grains in the breeze over the Flat could be heard around them.

"It's . . it's not easy like everybody thinks," Menos finally blurted out.

"We lost all the friends we had at home in Guatemala," added Mas.

"And there's no other heroes our age here!"

"And . . . and . . . while we were up here being 'heroes', our father passed away in Mirador. He died before they could get him to a hospital."

Both boys slumped down a bit on the bench, not quite crying but not far from it. Wally patted Mas's back next to him. Jinx patted Menos's.

"It's okay guys. It's okay. This job can be really tough sometimes."

"You and Jinx make it seem so easy, so . . natural," sniffed Mas.

"Guys, guys," Wally demanded their attention. "This job is not easy and nobody does it just 'naturally'. Nobody."

"Don't Bee and Garth and Roy help you guys?" asked Jinx.

"There are things they can't help us much with," muttered Mas to his shoes.

"We-we even talked about quitting last week," said Menos in a tone dripping with shame.

"That's okay guys," said Wally. "I quit once."

"You?" asked a shocked Mas as both he and Menos now sat up straight.

"Uh huh," said Wally.

"No!"

"What happened?" asked Menos.

"It's kind of a long story."

"Tell us! Tell us!" they pleaded.

He glanced at Jinx who was barely suppressing a smile. She knew the story well.

"Well, okay. Here's what happened . . "


	2. Crushed by silence

Author's note: This was going to be too long, so I'm breaking up this chapter into two

"Well, okay. Here's what happened," said Kid Flash and he started recounting for Mas and Menos the part he knew of this story.

It was four days after Kid Flash's 13th birthday.

Flashes were a common sight in Keystone City. It was the home of the Flash and the place where Kid Flash had gotten most of his training and first gone on missions with his super speed mentor. So, the sight of one of the Flashes beside the interstate highway as rush hour traffic inched along was not that unusual for residents of Keystone. They were commonplace blurs of red or red and yellow in Keystone City, going by so quickly residents couldn't be sure exactly what they'd seen. It was a popular gag, in Keystone City, to point to misdirect your buddy's attention. "Hey! Was that the Flash?" and get your pal to look away so that you could steal some of his fries, check his notes, scan the list of calls on his cell phone etc. Nobody could be sure it wasn't true. The Flashes were seemingly always there and yet the average person could never quite confirm it.

But that was okay. The Flash and Kid Flash were beloved in Keystone City. Everyone knew the Flashes could always be trusted. They'd always be there when needed, even if you were seldom sure just when they were around.

However, it was odd for drivers crawling along in stop and go rush hour traffic to see Kid Flash just standing there in the breakdown lane of the interstate in his tight red bottom and yellow topped suit with his orange hair spilling out the top. But there he was, talking and gesturing animatedly as though in conversation with someone who couldn't be seen. A girl the same age as the teen speedster stuck her arm out the window of her family's brand new 2003 Escalade, nearly touching the red of his backside, and took a picture of him with her camera phone as her mother slowed beside him in traffic.

"Wait till Ashley sees this!" she giggled. "Kid Flash's butt!"

After confirming that she'd gotten the picture, she looked back at the young speedster. He was animatedly discussing something with . . . no one.

"I thought they said he'd moved to some other city. And, like, what the fuck's he doing?"

"Brittney! Language!"

"Well, who's he talking to, Mom?"

"Might be someone from another dimension," suggested her brother from the back seat. "There was a news story on the internet that the Flashes might get the earth destroyed by bringing someone here from another dimension."

Their mother shook her head. Other dimensions! News stories from the interweb! These kids!

The girl took another picture of the teen speedster still talking away and then traffic moved along.

Back on the shoulder of the road, the teen speedster was oblivious to the people in passing cars gawking at him. He was practicing what he'd say to his Uncle Barry. At last he got the wording just right.

" . . great responsibility but not unlimited responsibility." He intoned then nodded in satisfaction at this formulation. Yeah. That's it. That's good.

He hadn't planned on stopping there beside the highway. He normally never stopped where he could be seen unless he had to. He was proud of his speedster body but he wasn't six feet tall like Flash. He was only five two and . . . the stupid skin tight suit! And if Flash had ever said that the stupid jock he was giving him to wear underneath it was like what ballet dancers wore . . ! He'd have never put it on. Never! But Flash had just told him what to wear and he did. The fact that the suit actually felt perfectly comfortable to him now didn't change anything. Uh uh. It was too tight. It was just wrong for him to have to wear this suit that looked painted on. He hated people looking at him in it. And he suddenly realized that he was just standing there beside the highway with lots of people seeing him and taking cell phone pictures of him.

"Aaaa!"

He put it in gear. He knew what he'd say to Uncle Barry now, having gone over the weak points in his arguments, and sprinted away. A second later the people hoping to take pictures of him were disappointed as the slender, ultra-conditioned, 13 year old boy in the red and yellow suit suddenly disappeared and a blur of those colors was momentarily seen along the interstates outside Keystone City.

Just a half second's run away, in a handsome brick home set back from the street and the neighbors in one of the better sections of Keystone City, Iris West had just stepped out of the tub and pulled on her robe. She'd just gotten back to Keystone City from her trip to Washington after turning up more dirt on the senior senator from Massachusetts's ownership of stock in oil companies. For all his hot air about evil oil companies the fat bastard had a ton of money tied up in one. She had used every ounce of her shmoozing abilities and maybe just a touch of misrepresentation to get ahold of some pieces of the puzzle. Now, she needed to decompress. So, this wasn't a bad time to see the note on the fridge from her husband, Barry Allen, that he was at work dealing with a project. The "J" in project was bigger than any of the other letters, his private signal to her that it was a Justice League matter.

She was drying her hair when she heard what sounded like a hundred knocks on the door in 3 seconds then the telltale humming sound of someone vibrating through just as she got to the living room. She was not surprised, then, when she tossed the towel into the hamper and turned the corner to see her red and yellow clad nephew suddenly appear just inside the door, five feet two inches and 99 pounds of impossibly well conditioned little super speedster, orange hair spilling out the top of his tight uniform. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of him.

"Don't try and talk me out of it!" declared the thirteen year old hero folding his thin arms across his chest.

Aunt Iris raised an eyebrow. Um . . . okay.

She said nothing,

"Don't try and talk me out of it. My decision's final!" he declared imperiously, again, before covertly glancing to see what her response was.

Iris West smiled.

Cutest.

Boy.

Alive!

What a handsome face and that little speedster body in that suit! He was even more adorable when he was trying to seem authoritative despite being such a slender five foot two.

She thought of the one time she'd seen him in action, months ago, in downtown Keystone City. Barry was away on some Justice League thing. She'd just happened to be shopping a block away from the bank being robbed. And there was her handsome nephew, a blur of yellow atop a blur of red, catching bullets in the air and then knocking out the crooks right in front of the bank. He stood over them in his revealing one piece outfit trying to seem in charge of the situation while simultaneously looking uncomfortable that people could see him in his colorful unitard.

"Stay back folks! Stay back!" he intoned over the groaning, subdued crooks in a 12 year old's imitation of a deep, commanding adult's voice as police sirens wailed in the distance.

Nobody saw the way his eyes briefly went wide as he recognized her in the crowd now surrounding him. Aunt Iris!

What'd he say? Oh yeah. "Aren't you the world famous journalist Iris West?"

She wasn't sure how well she suppressed her grin. "Yes. Yes I am," she'd replied. "And you're that impressively mature young superhero, Kid Flash, aren't you?" she'd replied, laying it on just as thick back at him.

"Yes, ma'am. I am," he replied, the fake deepness of voice almost comical now.

She'd dug out her reporter's notebook and started asking him questions. Everyone played their role. He was so adorable, trying so very hard to be what he thought Barry was. And he looked so wonderful in that tight suit. There was a buzz from the girls in the crowd that gathered around him. She'd grinned overhearing it. They wanted to pinch him. How do the girls keep their hands off my little nephew, she wondered. What if they don't always? She wondered further and smirked at the thought of them not restraining themselves. The whole scene was so cute. Even better was his shyness about it all. Her nephew had been the most bookish of boys. He was not the type of boy to be arrogant about his amazing new physical abilities. And she thought he'd been unpopular at school, not at all the boy the girls started to pay extra attention to. He didn't quite realize what he looked like to girls. Why do those girls all look at me like that, Aunt Iris? Do they have to look at me like that?! Just like his uncle, she thought, a pair of complete bookish nerds, she sighed. So funny that Barry and Wally, the two most nerdy males she'd met, should get the incredible physical abilities they got. And they were still that way at heart. She remembered her then fiance suddenly having not just a really good body but one in impossibly good condition and with more muscle back where a sprinter has more muscle than other runners. "I-I've been working out a lot lately Iris," he'd lamely explained, as though she wouldn't notice how his body had changed!

Sigh.

Nerdy guys. So cute.

While she thought of this, her slender nephew in his tight red and yellow suit waited and waited then finally sighed and glanced from side to side watching her. But she wasn't saying anything. Don't talk you say, little nephew? Okay. I won't talk. No objections, nothing.

He frowned. Why isn't she saying anything? Isn't she going to even try to talk me out of it? But he noticed her shaking her head side to side now with a look of bewilderment on her face.

Then he realized. He hadn't actually said it.

"Oh. I'm quitting. I won't do anymore flashing," he declared, making a "safe" gesture with his red gloved hands.

Pause.

"Okay, that came out wrong. I won't be Kid Flash any more. I mean, I don't . . ," he gestured with air quotes, " . . flash . . anyone. This suit's bad enough," he said tugging at the rubbery, spandexy suit over his abs where it immediately snapped back to look like a coating over his skin. "But the-the point is that I'm quitting. I'm quitting and that's it. Don't try and talk me out of it!" he declared imperiously, again, crossing his slender yellow clad arms over his chest but carefully watching his taller, 5 foot 8 inch tall aunt all the while.

And he watched her.

And he watched her.

And he watched her.

She said nothing and only placidly waited.

As she knew, waiting was not her speedster nephew's forte.

"Don't try!" he commanded putting up a stop sign with one red gloved hand despite her showing not the slightest inclination to try.

She mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.

He looked at her in confusion now and sighed.

What the . . ?!?!?

Is this a girl thing?!?

Maybe it's an Aunt thing.

All his preparation for this declaration had assumed that she and Uncle Barry would immediately try to talk him out of it. All his lines were prepared for how he figured they'd object. It was like he'd memorized his part in Hamlet and suddenly found himself on stage amid the set from Macbeth.

Didn't you hear me? There's something rotten in the state of Flash! Meanwhile, around him, Birnam Wood was silently advancing toward the castle. He stared at her in confusion another moment before composing himself.

"That's right," he said walking further into the living room and deciding to just keep using the Hamlet script anyway. "I won't be wearing this stupid suit any more," he said, pulling at the stretchy material at his rear. "Uh uh, no more. Nope." He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he said this and couldn't quite figure out her expression. Women could be so hard to figure out. Why did they care about some of the stuff they cared about? Like "relationships" and Oprah?!?! God. Aren't they supposed to always want to talk? All the girls at school talk. Talk talk talk. Talktalktalktalktalk. Talktalktalktalktalktalktalk.

Aunt Iris just stared placidly back at him.

What the heck is this?!?!

So he just decided to keep going.

"Yup. After I run home that'll be the last time I wear this suit or the . . ," he avoided looking at her a moment, "dance belt thing underneath. And you can't talk me out of it!"

He waited for a reaction but, again, got . . . nothing. He was bewildered at the lack of effect the news had on her. He thought he'd gone over every possibility of how she and Uncle Barry would react. Pleading. Angry. Reproaching. Guilt trips. Mixes of them. He didn't think no reaction was a possibility. Didn't she hear me? I said I'm quitting. Aunt Iris is married to Uncle Barry, The Flash. She certainly respects Flash work. She loved it when I became a hero. Why . . why wasn't she arguing? He looked at her with a nearly pleading expression now.

Come. On!

"Hey, where's Uncle Barry?" he finally thought to ask, happy to change the subject from the way she was totally defeating him with her reticence.

But Aunt Iris was enjoying dominating him in silent mode and only motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen which he did. She then pointed to her husband's note to her stuck to the refrigerator door under a magnet. She pointed at the "J" in project. Kid Flash nodded.

"The League, huh? Well, you can tell him when he gets back that I quit. Don't . . try and talk me out of it," he said with a certain listlessness to the declaration.

By now, he didn't expect to get the reaction for which he'd practiced. He folded his arms over his chest but eyed her wearily. Again, she said nothing and waited. He felt like she was crushing him with this inscrutable refusal to respond. For a young speedster, waiting was practically like the color yellow for Green Lantern or kryptonite for Superman.

Two seconds.

Five seconds.

Ten seconds.

He felt like he was in a vise. Usually time was his weapon against crooks. Now it was like the hands of a giant analog clock squeezing the life out of him. Was this some new power she had, to make time stand still?

Aaarrrggghhh!

Finally, she smiled at him. How can she smile?! Doesn't she know how this is killing me? Then she motioned for him to come over to her. He approached warily. When he got to her side, she wrapped an arm around his side and hugged him to hers, leaning her head down on his orange haired head.

"You can't just hug me out of this, Aunt Iris . . . I'm not just some little kid . . . . . I'm thirteen now. Thir-teen! . . . . I'm serious about this . . . . I'm . . . . ."

She nodded and patted his rear then rubbed his yellow clad back, side and shoulder. He closed his eyes and sighed softly.

"Poor little Wally," she thought to herself and added some angry words in her mind for her husband for letting her little nephew get to this point.

A minute later, his mind was a warm fuzzy blank. Aunt Iris was rubbing his side and patting his head. She might've kissed the top of his head. He wasn't sure, not about much of anything. But it felt really good. Really good. He sighed contentedly. But somewhere in the back of the warm fuzzy blank was a feeling that there was something he was supposed to be doing.

"Hey!"

He took a step away from her.

"You can't just make this go away with one of your hugs. I'm not doing this any more," he said tugging at the stretchy Kid Flash suit material over his 8 pack abs. "You can't just make me just forget everything with a hug," he added, hoping to dispel the fact that that's exactly what she'd done. "I'm not gonna wear this any more. I'm not gonna Flash. I mean . . . Ugh. You know what I mean."

Again, he waited for her to argue. He had his lines ready. But not only didn't she argue. She snapped her fingers in the air with a smile and pantomimed for him to wait a second before going to the other room.

Ahh, now she'll try he told himself with a slight smile. She's probably getting a pad and pencil. She'll write down her pleas to keep being Kid Flash on a pad of legal paper or something like that. You can't quit, Wally! You can't! He nodded with a smile. He was ahead of the game now. He knew how it would go from here. While she was gone, he wandered over to her desk and started flipping through her big leather binder of clippings about Flash's crime fighting career. Flash with captured bank robbers. Flash with captured jewelry thieves. Flash catches these guys. Flash catches those guys. Flash at City Hall awards ceremonies. There were, literally, hundreds of cut out and laminated newspaper articles. He started flipping through so fast even he could barely register each laminated picture and article, till finally an odd one got his attention.

"Whoa."

He stopped at one of the older ones, the background made clear it was taken at the circus, maybe one of the side shows. The caption read "Fattest Man Alive?" The picture was of some world record fatso in an authentic looking Flash suit. He was facing away from the camera and three teenaged boys were behind him pointing and laughing. His grotesquely huge backside stretched wider than the three boys even with gaps between them.

Aunt Iris came out of her bedroom with the box she'd been looking for and saw her nephew engrossed in one of the pictures in the photo album. She saw which one it was and smirked. Her nephew reached for his own backside with both hands and then held his hands a foot out to each side, then two feet, then as far as he could before shuddering. She smirked at her utterly fat free nephew considering the concept of being fat then cleared her throat. Her unitard clad nephew turned around.

"Oh. Aunt Iris. Was that really Flash in that picture?" he asked pointing to the laminated newspaper clipping, hoping she would dispel the notion that Flash had been turned into a colossal fatty. Because if somebody could do it to Flash, then they could do it to him, too, and would probably want to.

She nodded with a slight smile.

"But . . but the article says the guy weighed a thousand pounds . . !"

She nodded. Her nephew shuddered.

"Was this before you were married?"

She nodded.

"So . . . you just didn't see Uncle Barry one weekend and later you found out it was because he was . . he was the . . fat man in the circus?"

She nodded.

"See? This is another thing I won't have to deal with, crazy villains trying to turn me into a gorilla or a life sized puppet or make me super fat or something. Why do that to Flash, anyway. What's the point in making him look like the worst Jenny Craig 'before' picture ever?"

Aunt Iris turned her head to one side and raised one eyebrow. Come on, Wally, think about it!

"Okay, I guess that's one way to keep a super speedster from stopping you, make sure he can't run. Still . . "

She watched him shudder one more time before closing the photo album.

When he turned back around, he realized she had something in one hand behind her back. With a flourish, she produced it, handing him a gift wrapped box.

"For me, Aunt Iris?!"

She nodded with a grin.

A millisecond blur of red gloved movement and wrapping paper tearing later, the box was open revealing a set of pajamas that matched his uniform, red bottoms and yellow tops with a lightning bolt on the chest.

"Kid Flash jammies!" he cried out, realizing only too late that he sounded too obviously happy about it.

"I mean, um, pajamas. Hmmph. Well. Okay. I guess."

She showed him the label. They were bought in Hong Kong, not made there but bought there. She pointed to the words "Hong Kong", drew a heart in the air and pointed at him.

"They-they love me in Hong Kong?" he asked, and again regretted how he sounded, much too interested in how people feel about that Kid Flash guy he wasn't even going to be any more anyway.

"I mean, um, well, that's interesting. But I turned 13 last week, you know."

She nodded.

"I'm not just a little kid. I probably shouldn't even wear jammies, I mean . . pajamas like these."

Aunt Iris pulled the red bottoms from the box and held them to his tiny waist resisting the temptation to see if she could stretch her hands around him where he was so narrow. She glanced down and nodded in satisfaction. He wasn't easy to buy clothes for, being a slender super speedster. But they looked like a good fit. She held the yellow shirt top to his shoulders, no cowl or wings, of course, but, again, what looked like a perfect fit.

"Well, they might fit. But I'm not gonna put 'em on. I mean, I'm 13 now, Aunt Iris. Thir-teen! Pretty soon I'll be driving cars and voting and kissing girls and everything," he said with his best look of seen-it-all nonchalance.

Aunt Iris nodded calmly but insistently. Oh yes you will. She pointed to various windows. He got the point. He wasn't about to leave. She hadn't even argued yet. And if he was going to stay, it was better to be seen in the jammies than a real Kid Flash suit.

"Oh, alright. But just for camouflage. I'm thirteen after all."

She nodded, holding up first one then three fingers. Thir-teen!

"And, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking you'll talk me out of quitting and any time in the future that I'm here if someone sees me I can just superspeed into these jammies and say that's what they saw. Well that's-that's just wasted hypothetical stuff cuz I'm quitting and that's it. And you can't talk me out of it."

Again, Aunt Iris mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key. Kid Flash sighed in disappointment.

Women.

She gave him that insistent look, again.

He sighed. "Okay, okay. Just, um, turn around please for a second."

A half second later.

"Okay," he said and now faced her in red pajama bottoms with a yellow lightning bolt all around the waist and a yellow pajama top with a big lightning bolt on the chest. She smiled. They fit her hyperathletic nephew perfectly. He tugged at them here and there, liking them very much but not wanting to be too obvious about it.

She rubbed the edge of the sleeve between her thumb and two fingers with a slow nod.

"Yeah," he agreed. "They're really soft."

Finally, he zipped forward, hugged her for a split second then stepped back, wary of her power of mind erasing hugs. "Thanks Aunt Iris."

Her grin was the "you're welcome", to which she added a pat of his speedster rear.

"Aunt Iris!"

He spun to face her with an insistent look.

She was all grin then turned serious. I know. I know. She held up one finger then three. Thir . . !

Then she pointed to him and held up one finger again. You wait here. She disappeared into the kitchen. When she returned, it was with three large slices of cold pizza on a plate. He immediately started devouring them.

"Mmmf. Ffanks mmfAunt mmIris, mmI haven't mmeaten mmin mmfee mmhours. MmI waff mmdying!"

She patted his stomach with a smile before again giving him signals to wait there a minute, again, smiling to herself as she went off to another room.

She smirked to herself. Flashes are so easy to control if you have food.

Telling him to wait a minute wasn't needed. He wasn't about to go anywhere else with food, glorious food, available right there. When she came back from the other room, she had a series of pictures she'd printed from ones she'd taken with her phone camera. They were of the store in Hong Kong where she'd bought the jammies. The first was a picture of a giant poster of him, Kid Flash, on the wall at the store. And it was a good one, too, he thought, running and not showing his butt too much or making his guy stuff look all obvious like some of 'em did, like the damn suit did. There were a bunch of dark haired boys in front of it, pointing and smiling. There were other photos of a long line of such boys next to mothers and fathers, snaking all the way out the store into the street. And then another showing the line down the street to the next intersection. And there was another of a series of shelves, a couple dozen of 'em, empty except for one remaining box of Kid Flash jammies.

He let out a powerful burp as he finished the last bite of the three pizza slices.

"So I'm really . . popular there?"

Aunt Iris smiled. She watched him biting his lip in indecision, obviously liking his popularity and starting to feel guilty but desperately wanting to pretend indifference.

It took him several seconds to figure out what to say. He'd forgotten this whole angle on things. Lots of kids wanted to be him. And that was really neat. He loved the idea that he was a role model for other boys. Him! Wally West, the poorest boy at Jump Ridge Junior High, the boy whose parents didn't give him anything for his 13th birthday four days ago, the boy all the jocks made fun of because he likes reading books. They looked up to him like he'd looked up to Flash when he was just Wally West. Of course, that's what he was gonna be, again, Wally West. Just Wally West, not a role model for any boy, including the ones who could use one.

He looked up and saw Aunt Iris watching him closely.

"Well . . . I'll-I'll be sorry to disappoint them but . . I'm not gonna be Kid Flash any more," he said with no energy at all. "Don't, um, don't try and talk me out of it. You can't do it. So . . . so don't try," he said by rote with no feeling.

Aunt Iris nodded. He sighed again, wondering what had happened to the plan he'd been so sure of. Then she tapped his shoulder and pointed to the fireplace.

"Yes, ma'am."

And while she went to the hall closet and got a blanket it seemed like there was a two second burst of the sound of paper crunching and wood surfaces rubbing and then she looked over her shoulder to see Wally lighting the newspaper below some kindling and a stack of logs in the fireplace. Flames slowly climbed up the stack over the next few minutes till a steady blaze crackled away.

Aunt Iris came back in the room with a thick wool blanket and passed by the coffee table with a fawningly lit picture of the president and a caption of "What Nnow?" She tossed the blanket onto the couch and held up the magazine to show her nephew then underlining the words "What" "Now?" when he looked her way.

Wally grimaced as he stepped away from the fireplace. Another issue he hadn't considered. He shrugged. "I can do lots of things. Even athletically, I'm not just somebody who can run fast but who can't do anything else."

Aunt Iris smiled and then her eyes went wide. She started digging through a pile of old newspapers and finally pulled out a particular one. She flipped through to a certain page, covered most of it over with another newspaper and waved Wally over to her side. He approached warily, mindful of the mind erasing hugs. She pointed to a full page ad in the Keystone City Times over which she had placed a page from the business section so that only the top line showed.

"Looking For The Right Activity For Your Boy?"

She pointed to Wally with a playful smile. He smiled back. If only I was!

She pulled back the business section back to show the next line of large print. "Is He Athletic And Well Coordinated?" She looked down to her nephew with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you kidding, Aunt Iris? Before I became a Flash I was the best baseball player in my class. Nobody could catch me on the playground either, even before I got super speed! I could fake out any of the other kids," he said and juked left and right as if showing her.

She pulled the business section back to reveal the next line of the full page ad, "Is He Flexible?"

"Are you kidding, Aunt Iris?" chuckled her orange haired nephew. He bent at the waist and touched the palms of both hands to the floor. Then, he dropped to the floor and did a full split and popped right back up. "The only guy more flexible than me's the Elongated Man."

She raised an eyebrow. What about him?

"Yeah," said Wally softly. There was no way around it. He'd miss him if he didn't do any more hero'ing. He hadn't thought about that. "He's a neat guy, Elongated Man," he admitted softly. "I was on a mission with him and Flash. He was so cool. He didn't talk down to me or anything like that. He treated me like an equal even though I was only twelve then. He was great."

She smiled and motioned to him to try one more, flexibility test, directing him to put first one foot down then the other aginst it so that the sides of his feet touched but the toes of his left foot pointed left and those of his right foot pointed right. She raised and eyebrow. Is that hard to do?

"This is easy, Aunt Iris."

She pulled the business section down to reveal the next line. "Is He a Good Jumper?"

Wally chuckled. "Of course," he said and then jogged over to the slider, went outside and as Aunt Iris watched, jumped over two chairs and a patio table on the apron beside the pool and then over the corner of the pool. He came jogging back inside smiling. "When I'm taller I'll be able to dunk a basketball easy like Flash."

Aunt Iris smiled. She pulled the business section down to reveal the next line. "Is He Handsome With That . . Certain Physique?"

Wally looked at his aunt quizzically. She pointed to his face and made an expression like a girl swooning. Her nephew blushed. She smiled, reveling in his shyness and discomfort and pointed at him again. Yes, you! He looked away, smiling bashfully unable to face her.

She sighed. So. Cute. And she added a pat of his backside. When finally he faced her again, she pointed to the full page ad, from which she had pulled back the business section to reveal the next line. "Is He Smart And Appreciative Of The Arts?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. He nodded. "The last time I went up to the Justice League satellite, I went to their holo-room with Aqualad and we watched a symphony. It was like we were actually right there, just a few rows from the orchestra. I like things like that, too. And I get all A's in school easy. I told you about all the books I speed read."

She smiled proudly at him and nodded. Then she revealed the last line of the full page ad. "If You Answered 'Yes' To All These Questions, Your Boy Could Have A Career As A Ballet Dancer!"

Beneath this line was a picture of a young man in white tights captured in mid leap across a stage and a phone number and email address for the Keystone City junior ballet. She pointed from that picture to her wide eyed, shocked, gasping nephew.

"What?!" he finally shrieked. "You want me to go around wearing . . . that?!" He pointed at the guy's ridiculous tights. "The-the only thing worse than my Kid Flash suit?! The only thing worse?! No way! No way, Aunt Iris!"

She pointed to each line then to Wally. You. You. You. You. You.

He shook his head adamantly. "I'm not gonna do something else that's all about my body. And not something that gets me called a sissy by everybody. I'd rather be a scientist like Uncle Barry or something like that."

She nodded slowly and patted his shoulder indicating acceptance of his decision. He sighed in relief. God! Ballet!

When he turned to his aunt again, he saw her holding a DVD for the old Columbo tv show.

"Aunt Iris! I'm just Wally West now. I don't need to take detective lessons any more. I-"

She was pointing at the episode description on the back. There was one that his uncle had mentioned several times and that Kid Flash had been anxious to see.

"Oh. The, uh, the . . one that Uncle Barry kept . . talking about . ."

He sighed. He really did want to see that one. Flash had said it was really ingenious.

"Alright, but only because Uncle Barry got me all jazzed up about seeing that particular one, not for practice in thinking like a detective because I don't need to do that. I'm just Wally West skinny civilian from now on."

She nodded. Oh, of course.

_-to be continued_


	3. Crushed pt II

When he turned to his aunt again, he saw her holding a DVD. It was a collection of episodes from the old Columbo tv show. When he first became Kid Flash, Uncle Barry gave him detective lessons. He familiarized his little nephew with all the various tests he ran at the police lab. He suggested detective and mystery books for Wally to read to get accustomed to trying to solve those sorts of puzzles. And he watched DVD's of the old Columbo tv show with Wally. It was a particular favorite of Uncle Barry. He loved how Lieutenant Columbo would unravel some murderer's alibi because of some tiny incongruity some tiny element of it that didn't fit with the everyday routine of the victim or the killer. The last DVD in the set had just come out.

"Aunt Iris! I'm just Wally West now. I don't need to take . . detective lessons any more. I-"

She pointed at the episode description on the back.

There was one that his uncle had mentioned several times and that Kid Flash had been anxious to see.

"Oh. The, uh, the . . one that Uncle Barry kept . . talking about . . it's finally out, huh?"

He sighed. He really did want to see that one. Flash had talked about what an ingenious solution it had.

"Alright, but only because Uncle Barry got me all jazzed up about seeing that particular one, not for practice in thinking like a detective because I don't need to do that. I don't have to read all those detective books any more, either. I'm just Wally West skinny civilian from now on."

She nodded. Oh, of course.

So, a minute later they were sitting on the couch, him with his knees up against his chest in his jammies, and his aunt next to him under the thick blanket with an arm over his shoulders and intermittently patting his head, even once kissing the top of his head. He didn't try and avoid it. He was so at ease around Aunt Iris. Almost despite himself, he immediately became engrossed in the Columbo episode, trying to figure out what clues would prove who'd done it.

A police higher up talked condescendingly to Columbo eliciting an angry grunt from her nephew. She raised an eyebrow and hit pause.

"Hmmph. I know what that's like," he said looking at the screen and not at his aunt. "Half the cops treat me like a joke," he muttered, not looking at her with his chin now resting on his knees. "They snicker at me because I'm not that big and the stupid suit's so tight. I just know they make fun of me the second I sprint away, all those big doughnut eating fatsos! The worst part of it is that they get all resentful when I catch somebody instead of them and the press sees that it was me not them. Can you believe that?"

She patted his head because he sounded so depressed about it.

"I try and help and all I get is snickered at. They get angry that I show they're not doing the job, especially cause it's skinny little me. They don't get angry enough to do their job better, oh no, just angry enough to get mad at the skinny dude who does it instead of them. Probably a . . a union thing or something."

Aunt Iris rubbed his shoulder. He looked in her eyes and he could tell exactly what she was feeling. Aunt Iris was amazing that way. She could do a total poker face and not give you anything, but sometimes, with him, she would transmit to him her true feelings with absolute clarity in just a glance.

Sympathy.

"One guy making fun of me one time must've weighed 400 pounds. Imagine being like that and making fun of a speedster! When he goes camping, the bears hide _their_ food."

Aunt Iris smirked.

With his own mention of food, Wally thought of his cocoa on the table in front of them. He reached for his cup and then gulped down the contents.

Only it wasn't his cup.

And the contents were Aunt Iris's cocoa with a double shot of espresso.

Wally's eyes went wide.

"Guh! Caffeine!" he gasped, feeling his insides start to vibrate and jumped up from the couch to the floor not wanting to have a vibration fit while sitting beside his aunt..

Aunt Iris watched as the boy's face became blurry and a sound like a phone set on vibrate came from him.

"D-d-d-dam-m-m-mit!" he moaned.

One of the unexplained differences between her husband and her nephew was that Flash wasn't affected by caffeine while Kid Flash sometimes vibrated uncontrollably from how it interacted with his system.

"D-d-d-dam-m-m-mn c-c-c-c-c-aff-ff-ff-eine!"

The vibrations spread almost randomly throughout him. First his right leg vibrated like a jackhammer, his foot taptaptaptaptaptap pounding a rhythm out on the hardwood floor. Then he seemed to get that under control but his left arm started vibrating and became fuzzy. Then even that was under control. He seemed to be flexing every muscle in his body but another vibrating sound started.

His eyes went wide. He looked down at the front of his red jammie bottoms. Not in front of Aunt Iris!

For a moment she puzzled then slapped her hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"Aaaa!"

He spun around to face away from his aunt.

Finally, it seemed to pass and he turned back around with a couple deep breaths and jumped back onto the couch beside her.

"See what I have to go through?! See what I have to deal with, Aunt Iris? I have to eat six or seven meals a day or it feels like a hunger strike and caffeine does that to me. And even with all the stuff that I can do nobody knows how anything's going to affect me, if the whole speed thing is good for my health in the long term or not. Uncle Barry was old when he became the Flash, like . . 26 or 27. But I was only 11. I . . . "

Uh oh.

He flinched.

There was a long pause. He realized his mistake. Aunt Iris was 31 or 32 something old like that, he wasn't sure exactly, even if she was still really pretty. But she was more more than 27. He was sure of that.

The pause extended as he desperately tried to figure out how to get out of this and finally just muttered, "Um, sorry. I mean, 26 or 27's not old."

She patted his head. Only then did he feel it safe to go on.

"At least, that caffeine thing isn't as bad as it used to be. I used to bounce around a room like a rubber ball. I couldn't help it. I might be outgrowing it a bit. Once up in the Justice League's satellite, stupid Speedy switched his soda into my cup right before a meeting and I couldn't stop my body vibrating. No matter what I did I couldn't stop! I-I just kept vibrating and making this buzzing sound the whole time, no matter how hard I tried to stop it . . . . Batman was speaking to me, Speedy, Aqualad, WonderGirl, Super boy and Batgirl and he got all mad at me but I couldn't stop."

Aunt Iris rubbed his back. Poor Wally.

"Hmmph. Speedy! That should've been my name, not his, don't you think? But don't worry, I get him back for the way he called me gay non-stop that first time we met and the way he always pulls on the back of my suit and snaps it back at me. I-"

Aunt Iris was giving him a certain skeptical glance. With one eyebrow raised really high. Always pulls on the back of your suit? Is he . . ?

"What! No way, Aunt Iris. He's not like that. Although . . . nah, no way. He'd do anything to get a date with Wonder Girl. He-"

Ding Dong!

His defense of Speedy was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Aunt Iris pushed him away for him to answer it. As he made his way, slowly, to the door he wondered, fleetingly, about Speedy and the time up in the League's Watchtower satellite when he'd spilled a glass of water on his own bed and then had to share Kid Flash's with him. What if . . . . ? Naaaaaaaaah! No way. He's a hero. He's just friendly. He wants to make out with Wonder Girl, too. All us teen hero guys do, probably even that little jerk, Robin.

Wally carefully kept his pace to a painfully slow normal walk and opened the front door. Outside, on the front step, were a middle aged man and woman. And it worked just like Aunt Iris had hoped. The Fletchers from down the street were returning Uncle Barry's hedge trimmers. They remarked at what a handsome boy Wally was.

"Gosh, you even look like him," the man said of Wally in his Kid Flash jammies, "though smaller, of course." Iris was proud of how well Wally played it, all humble, "thanks" and "I wish" before launching into a smiling story of how his Aunt Iris bought them for him and how Kid Flash has been great for boys like him with bright red hair who always used to get made fun of. Now we get compared to a super hero! Thanks! I'll tell my uncle when he gets home!

As soon as the door was closed, Wally zipped over at super speed and was back beside Aunt Iris on the couch. She patted his shoulder before throwing the blanket back over him. Very nice job there, young man, she seemed to be saying. She had so much liked his smile to the Fletchers about Kid Flash making things better for gingers. But her little nephew was anything but grinning as he stared straight ahead, at the TV screen frozen on the paused imaged of Lieutenant Columbo.

"Maybe Kid Flash has made things better for some redheads but not me," he confided. "I have to trip and fall on my face if kids wonder aloud about my hair and his. When a bunch of big 8th graders chase after us, I have to let them catch me. Can't let anyone associate me with being fast, Uncle Barry said. Oh no! So, I get stuffed in one of those tall trash cans, and being a Flash, I'm so flexible that my head sticks out the top right next to my sneakers and everybody laughs at that for, like, forever. That was what Uncle Barry said. Can't let anyone think you might be Kid Flash. Oh no. If there's any chance for you to get picked on, then let it happen. People won't think of you as possibly being Kid Flash then."

"So, I have to go almost out of my way to get humiliated, Aunt Iris! I not only start to lose all my friends because I spend all my time as Kid Flash. I not only mess up any times I'm supposed to see a-a girl from school because I'm answering police calls that buzzed my ring on my finger. I not only do that and then get all this friction from the cops. But I have to let bullies pick on me, too!" he complained with gradually increasing volume before shutting his jaw tight and setting it back on top of his knees, staring forward at the tv screen. He felt her rub his shoulder sympathetically.

"On the last day of school," he continued in a sort of mumbled growl, these 8th graders were after me, making fun of me because I got all A's. I could beat those jerks up in a fraction of a second, me and my A's. But no! I hold back. I do like Uncle Barry said. I even let them chase me down in the hallway. You know how painful that was for me, a speedster to let four pudgy idiots 'chase' me down? And then, they drag me into the school cafeteria and give me an atomic wedgie in front of practically the whole school!"

He glanced over at his aunt. She had a quizzical expression.

"It's-it's when . . well, a wedgie is when you yank someone's briefs up in the back. An atomic wedgie is when you pull them up over his head! It fricking hurt. My equipment ached. I was on the floor groaning and the whole school, practically the whole school was laughing at me. Ha ha, look at the weirdo nerd! But it was a great victory for me right? Great victory for me because people won't think of me as Kid Flash after something like that. Yes sirree, Uncle Barry. Great victory for me. Cause it doesn't matter how hard things are for me, as long as my freaking secret identity's safe then everything's great! Friends? Family? Girls? Respect for what I do and maybe a thank you some of the time? Who needs that stuff? I've got a ring and a secret identity. I'm all set!"

He spoke it all facing forward, not looking at her, partly because he didn't want her sympathy to derail him partly because his eyes started to water considering the miserable mess his life had become. He blinked at super speed to prevent tears. He could feel the way she was rubbing his shoulder change now. She squeezed the muscle of his shoulder. He knew that she would be on the verge of tears now. He couldn't look.

"They-they don't even say thank you," he continued softly. "Even the people you save, whose-whose lives you save don't say thank you half the time. They take it for granted that someone like Flash or me just does this stuff, like-like it's our job and we have to or something. Well, that's not the way it is!" he said, raising his voice at the end. "The whole thing's not fair to me! You can't ask me to have no friends! You can't ask me to have no chance with any girls, then get picked on at school and laughed at and treated like crap by the police! It's not fair to me. You can't ask me to ruin my life to-to save other peoples' and have them not even thank me!" he said and then remembered one of his lines. "With great power comes great responsibility but not unlimited responsibility!"

Things were silent for a bit then the DVD player automatically switched back into 'play' mode from 'pause' mode, a certain time having elapsed. Lieutenant Columbo spoke a few words before Aunt Iris grabbed the control and hit stop. She went back to squeezing his shoulder.

"I can't . . do this, Aunt Iris. It's too much."

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Aunt Iris looking like she was about to cry now. And finally, she spoke.

"Sometimes, Wally, situations are-are bad, but if you . . persevere in them long enough, they become good, or at least . . okay. And sometimes, even though you want to be so . . so strong, you need to tell people who care that you need help."

"I . . . . . . need . . . . . . help, Aunt Iris," he barely whispered before being engulfed in a hug while he blinked at super speed to avoid crying on her shoulder. He had no idea how long it lasted and didn't care. His aunt hugged him and rubbed his back. She felt every breath of her skinny little nephew for a minute as she whispered in his ear. "We'll be there for you more often, Wally. I've been so busy with work, I haven't dropped by in months. But Uncle Barry and I will make time to be with you more. You're doing a great job. It shouldn't ever get so hard that it becomes too much for you. It shouldn't ever. Oh Wally!"

The incredible tension, the anxiety, the exasperation at how the world was treating him, at the impossible demands being made of him, they all vanished with her touch and her words. Years later, when he had just joined the Titans, Robin was familiarizing him with the other team members' abilities. He started telling him of Raven's empathic abilities and, as he was wont to do, started launching into a more detailed explanation until he was stopped by Kid Flash holding up one red gloved hand. "I know how it works," he told the Titans leader.

"But you-"

"I know all about it."

He stayed up late that night, watching more Columbo DVD episodes with Aunt Iris and discussing the little tricks of detection in them. She told him about some of her reporter's tricks to get inside places and get information too. He laughed and laughed at some of her stories. And even though he felt like he had more energy than ever, at a certain point, Aunt Iris insisted that he go to bed. She tucked him in on the couch and gave him a kiss on the forehead, whispering, "We'll always be there for you, Wally."

He fell asleep with a smile. Though, it was a curious sleep. Somewhere, not far away, almost like voices off stage of the reveries in his mind, there were other voices. Ow! Ow! Ow! Don't pull on my wing like that. You know what your nephew wanted to do?! Ow! Iris! Please!

He didn't remember them after he woke. When his eyes opened, he was on the couch in Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris's house. He was wearing Kid Flash jammies under a thick wool blanket. To one side was Aunt Iris sitting in a recliner pulled up beside the couch. To the other, the short cropped blond hair and arm of a sleeping Uncle Barry in a bathrobe rested atop the couch back. Aunt Iris was already awake and smiled down at him. She reached across the couch and pulled one of Uncle Barry's ears, hard. to wake him.

"Ow!" he immediately reacted. "Didn't you get enough of that last night?"

"Your nephew, Barry."

Wally's uncle turned to him with a sigh and smiled softly. "Hey, tiger," he said with a pat of Wally's shoulder. "Your aunt tells me you stopped by with a pretty serious message yesterday."

Wally looked him straight in the eyes and nodded. His uncle sighed.

"Look, there's-there's no way around it. I messed up. And I'm sorry about that, Wally. I didn't appreciate how tough your situation could be. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"

Wally nodded.

"You've always been so good at-at being a Flash that, well, sometimes I forget that you're only twelve-"

"Thirteen!" Wally immediately corrected and his uncle noticed that for some reason Iris thought that was very funny.

"Sorry. I . . I guess that shows how out of touch I've been about things in your life. I'm sorry. I haven't been a good mentor if I don't know better than that. I-"

"That's not true! You've been great!" Wally interrupted, starting to sit up in the process before his uncle's hand to his chest held him down.

"I haven't been great if everything's become too much for you to handle. I need to give you more of my time."

"Same here," said Aunt Iris from the other side.

"And not only lessons in using super speed. Just . . just time. I should have realized that." he said and motioned for Wally to sit up then gave him a hug from one side as Iris did from the other. When finally they let their smiling nephew go, he immediately turned to his uncle.

"Tag?" he asked excitedly.

"Okay, we'll play tag."

Wally pulled the blanket over his head and a split second later threw it down to the other end of the couch, emerging in his Kid Flash suit.

"Continental?"

His uncle zipped to the other room in his bathrobe and returned in his red Flash suit.

"State only," he bargained.

"Aw, come on Flash! Three state!"

"Two state."

Aunt Iris watched her nephew mull this offer over before reluctantly accepting. "Okay. Two state and vibration allowed."

Flash sighed. "Fine. Vibration allowed."

So fast it was barely visible to her, Aunt Iris watched her nephew zip over and slap her husband on the shoulder before zipping to the door and shouting, "You're it!" then vibrating right through it and disappearing.

"He'll be okay," her husband smiled to her, then sped after him.


End file.
